my car seems to be stuck in all-wheel drive even though the button shows that it’s disengaged. the mechanics don’t know what’s going on and so disconnected a piece of the drive shaft so that the back tires wouldn’t spin and it would just be in front-wheel drive (the default position when it’s not in all-wheel). but, that made the car not move at all (not front-wheel drive afterall) until i pressed the all-wheel drive button in to engage it. now the front tires spin. was this thing not stuck in all-wheel drive in the first place? i don’t get it.
I am about 95% sure your vehicle is ALWAYS in AWD. The button you touch is only to lock the center differential(AWD component) so the vehicle becomes essentially a 4wd for better traction in really adverse conditions.
Removing the drive shaft has likely only screwed up the system. Can they replace the driveshaft again?
What was the problem in the first place that led you to going down this boon doogle?
First you need to re-install the drive shaft. Then you need to find a new mechanic. I agree with Andrew J. I’m pretty sure the All-Trac system was Toyota’s name for an early All Wheel Drive system. All Wheel Drive differs from 4 Wheel Drive in that AWD is always “on,” and 4WD is manually engaged when needed.
Find a mechanic who will do a little research on this vehicle (it’s not rocket science), and not try any mickey-mouse repairs. Removing the drive shaft is a REALLY lame way to solve a problem, even if there had been a problem in the first place, which I don’t think there was.
What DID make you decide you had a problem, anyway? I think you should put everything back the way it was and drive the car. Winter is here. You may need the AWD, and disconnecting it will NOT increase your gas mileage enough to matter.